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Crowd Interaction & Reaction
By Ryan Wilson
For me crowd reaction means a lot, and although at live events I’m not typically the rowdy type I still do put my two pence piece in to shouting, cheering and booing anyone I like or dislike, I “ah” when there’s a good spot and I moan when there’s a botch. At my last WWE live event I bought a program, dear knows why seeing as they’re only picture books in effect, and at the start it gave me a quote; a quote that when I read it in the arena gave me goosebumps or tingles -whatever you guys call them. This quote spoke so loud and true to me that I couldn’t help but copy it down on my blackberry so whenever I’m bored and flick through my phone, this quote has enough in it to make me smile. Below is the quote:
There is nothing else like it: The electric anticipation that fills the arena as people take their seats. The buzzing darkness when the lights go down. The very first note of a Superstar’s entrance music, and the crowd’s instant, deafening roar. The moment when the Superstar finally emerges, or the way time slows down when a high-flyer takes to the air. Every show is an infinity of moments. And everyone in attendance knows they are witnessing something unforgettable, something great. Each of them will forever be able to say,
“I was there.”
This quote is true to me, individually and I’m damn sure it’s true to everyone reading this. I love it when people are taking their seats, mumbling to each other about last week’s Raw or SmackDown, or just generally talking about great WWE moments. They sometimes talk about previous live events they’ve been to, or that time they met David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, the back then debuting Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio (k, I don’t mean to boast but it was a cool day for me) I also met Chad Patton but I’m not one to over boast. When the lights go down, I mark out like a 5 year old meeting SpongeBob, and when I hear that first note you best believe I’m turning to the person beside me, screaming to them in high pitched vocals who the superstar is. When it says deafening roar I’m more like the dude smashing glass with my high pitched but totally awesome 5 year old vocals, but the rest of Belfast manage to bulk up the crowd noise with monotone blurs. I, thankfully, had awesome seats the past two times I went to a live event, with the more recent time being the best seats I’ve ever had. Here’s the bit where I sound like a pervert but I was able to touch the superstars who were clapping hands with the guys at the side, my most notable touch was Eve, hubba bubba she left her glitter on my hand, Sin Cara and Sheamus who not so surprisingly had a wrist the size of my legs…both of them together. And finally, I’m able to say that I seen a great Sin Cara – Primo match, and I saw Evan Bourne take to the skies to hit a shooting star press -which is so much better live that on TV. Well I hate to be the one to repeat what WWE said, but “I was there.”
Like I said at the start, crowd interaction to me is vital. If you don’t have that at a live event then what do you have? Wrestlers in the ring trying their hardest to put on a good show, getting no feedback from the crowd. What then? Are the wrestlers just meant to be happy about this, cos I sure as hell wouldn’t and ultimately it results in less than spectacular performances that we, the crowd are expecting. At Hell In A Cell I thought the crowd was so flat, so bad that if you emptied the stadium and put one high pitched like 5 year old in the crowd would have made more noise, wouldn’t have looked as well but it would have sounded better. I honestly enjoyed the matches; I can’t say I hated any of them, so what if they weren’t the best? Not all the matches are gonna be the best that they can be. Sheamus won I was happy with that. Sin Cara vs Sin Cara wasn’t the cleanest of matches and granted there were a lot of botches, but I’d like to see half the world do what they done, and as far as the crowd go? Chanting boring killed the match, I understand that you’re a paying customer and have good rights to voicing your opinion but honestly? You dudes killed the crowd. It was hard to listen to and annoyed me from get go, and I’m sure this infuriated Vince in the back. That was basically the stand out moment for me with the crowd and there wasn’t much else that bothered me other than the lack of noise. I think at one stage Cole was trying his hardest to talk over the chants to hide them from those watching at home, but it wasn’t happening for me, all I could think of was how much of spoilt brats the dudes chanting boring were. The crowd were lackluster from then on, and refused to spark any emotion, there were a few ahs, a few ohs but not enough for a PPV. I wouldn’t have cared if it was Raw or SmackDown, but the fact of the matter is when you have a better crowd response at Raw than you do at a PPV that’s bound to be telling you something, right? Of course the crowd were slightly more enthusiastic at the end of the PPV when all hell broke loose, but again, I’ll go back to it, they killed the PPV until then. I love wrestling and watched each match with as much excitement as I could conjure up for what was gonna happen, sure I was positive that AirBoom, Rhodes, Henry and Beth were gonna win their matches but that didn’t make me any less intrigued. But as I was watching the PPV I had bad thoughts about it in the back of my mind, I just couldn’t get over the fact of how lame the crowd were.
To be a wrestler you need to possess the skills and trades to be one, but to be a successful wrestler you need to connect to the crowd, and at Hell In A Cell, no one done that. But for me, this is where I’m making an exception, these wrestlers, these guys and girls who put everything on the line out there to please us fans didn’t shrug the shoulders and give up. They continued with their matches, finished their matches and they probably gave off in the back but the fact that they stayed on course and done what needed to be done was good enough for me. I enjoyed the PPV, I enjoyed the Hell In A Cell matches and I would probably enjoy them if I watched them again. It was a weak PPV in comparison to others but I enjoyed it and if I was to watch it again, I’d probably get ten times more pissed off than I was the first time watching it, simply due to the fact that the crowd didn’t inspire shit to smell. I couldn’t get as excited about the matches as I wanted to, this is because I love to hear the crowd roar, and when they’re excited I’m excited with them. To sit and watch a PPV on screen with nothing from the crowd and everything from the commentators, it made me wanna listen to some music, although it would be a crime to turn off Booker T, damn he is so funny. Overall the PPV wasn’t too bad in my opinion, I enjoyed the matches, the crowd just dampened the mood.
What does everyone else think?
IWC are so critical, in a way they study it and just know more than the casual fan.
I’m sad to say iv’e only been to one house show which was back in 2005 in Dublin, fella. I remember Finlay got a huge pop. Seats were okay at most. I plan to watch Manchester United and then go to a RAW event in Manchester some time, maybe this year but doubt it.
Hell in a Cell crowd were pretty dead, they didn’t have that same energy as fans that were watching a PPV build for an entire month compared to two weeks.
Good read!
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See I’d say I’m also quite critical, but there’s a point where you have to realise that by being so critical you’re dampening your experience. I literally have to stop myself from being critical, and I’m glad I do.
Finlay always gets a HUGE pop up here in Belfast, but I have to say Sheamus beat that this April, they torn the roof down for him this year. Back in April Sheamus was a heel, but there wasn’t any point in him trying to be a heel, so he was temporarily a babyface and Daniel Bryan was a heel, along with my beloved Gail Kim who was wearing hot leather shorts, and top. HUBBA BUBBA! So. Frickin’. Hot.
I agree about the build up, but it’s still a PPV and a lot of people would have chewed their arms off to see two Hell In A Cell matches right in front of their eyes, I know I would.
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Oh when I will go to a show next I will not be critical at all, i’d enjoy it.
I get what your’re saying about PPV, but their was something about Hell in a Cell that was unappealing, I had no interest in buying it. I know you can argue a live crowd is different, alright. But, you just couldn’t feel anything special about it.
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Agreed that there was no buzz about it, but the fact that these people bought tickets and refused to cheer just baffled me. And the match type makes me excited enough to break glass with my high pitched holla.
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Well, HIAC matches aren’t what they used to be, so that may have something to do with it.
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Great topic!
The HIAC crowd was the worst I’ve heard in years, or rather, haven’t heard. The event wasn’t that good, but the crowd made it worse.
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The crowd were horrible. Just completely stinking, damn, they rotted out that joint.
Thanks 🙂
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Yeah, from what I heard, they were like many crowds in Japan, minus the appreciation afterwards.
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Yeah, was very unappreciated.
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Good write, Ryan. 🙂
Totally feels electric when you’re at a live event. Raw tapings are insane to be at, I couldn’t imagine a PPV. That’s whats shocking about HIAC….you’d think being at a live event like a PPV people would have been excited….
I love crowds from Canada and the UK because they’re always so hot. Usually places where WWE doesn’t go all the time seem to be a little more excited.
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Thank you 🙂
I am so JEL right now, you’ve been to a Raw taping?! Psssssssh, I would love to go to one.
Yup, agreed, a PPV is a big thing, it’s something that goes onto DVD and many people own, something that you can buy and say “I was there” and like I said to Ray up there, there were TWO Hell In A Cell matches, TWOOOO!!! I would have chewed all my limbs off to be able to witness such great structures in front of my dang eyes. Some people just don’t appreciate it enough to raise their voices. It’s funny because when CM Punk says he’s the voice of the voiceless, he really does mean it. The crowd seemed voiceless.
WWE need to come here more often, they’re actually over in November buuuut not in Belfast because MTV have decided to hold the European Music Awards here in the same arena. Fuckers. Assholes. ASSASSINATE BIEBER!!!!
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I love the ramdom “WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” chants.
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haha the best chat I was witnessing live was ”FINLAY FINLAY Clap Clap Clap” and so on.
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I had to do that. Had to. A popular one here in Belfast is “fuck aff outta here ye dick ya!” Or “BOOO” because us Belfast bunch are moany bitches, except for me and my 5 year old bitch scream 😀
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I still want “ANAL BLEEDING!!!” to take the place of “What?”.
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Yea, totally agree with you on that. Their were probably, well, IDK lol What the hell went wrong there? Like the crowd being that dead!
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And it was odd, because a couple months before, the IWC was going nuts at the thought of Punk and Cena wrestling each other. They were in a HIAC match together and all I heard was “meh”. I know the WWE didn’t build up the match that well, but that’s very short time before they got bored.
Also, can we all stop using the word “meh”? Everytime I hear it, it just comes across as a bunch of snobs who think they are too cool for the room.
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The crowd actually reacted to Cena/Punk, but would die back out when Del Rio got back in the mix. Or, couple of times, when Del Rio was sqauring off against one of the others, the crowd would just chant for Cena/Punk. Del Rio is definitely an after-thought.
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Yeah, it was too soon for him to be in the title hunt.
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Yeah I’ve been to two live Raws both in Calgary. The first one was when WWE bought WCW and that was the night Lance Storm debuted in WWE. LOL. Horrible seats though. Second Raw was a few years ago and we were in the second row in the floor. Got some good pics I’ll share with you. (although my thumb, peoples body parts are also in these pics)
Mark Henry, who I hated at the time was the only fucker to smack my hand…and it actually stung for quite a while. We had a sign that said Michael Cold Sucks, and after the show when they were walking to the back Jerry Lawler saw the sign and walked over to us. He called Michael Cole over who really seemed annoyed and like he wanted to avoid it, and we told him we wanted him to sign it but he said he didn’t have a pen. One of the photographers took a picture of us and Cole and the sign, then went to give Michael Cole a pen to sign for us, but he put his hand up and said that’s ok and walked away. LOL. I hope for Michael Cole’s retirement they pull out that picture. I want a copy. Sorry this was long. lol….but it just goes to show how exciting live events are. lol
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I still remember seeing Mark Henry at the movie theater back in 2006. He was playing with his kids, so I didn’t bother him. That would be a good idea for a column! What wrestlers you’ve ever seen in person.
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If you wanna hear my stories about meeting some of the guys I’ll definitely share them this week. Likewise from you James, would be interesting to hear your meet and greets
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This’ll be fun.
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